


Voices (And Why They Sound the Way They Do)

by testedcyberneticz



Category: SteamWorld Heist, SteamWorld Heist (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Short Descriptions of Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24727567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/testedcyberneticz/pseuds/testedcyberneticz
Summary: (And that was why they existed at all.)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Voices (And Why They Sound the Way They Do)

Everyone had a different voice. 

Of course, this was incredibly obvious to quite literally everyone, but they had never meant it that way when they said it. They theorized that maybe, no other steambot ever noticed it. That would make complete sense. They heard it everyday, the slight differences, the very small different ways, how each word was pronounced in what they were sure would sound like nonsense to an outsider. 

But Fen had not always been a steambot, they never grew up in a steambot society, and even still, with their memories cracked like melting glass and the familiarity of a world that only came to them when it was too late, they knew they would never be a steambot. Not by technicality, no. Some parts were steambot, easily taken from the less than fortunate while the rest of them remained Vectron. And in a weird sense, they didn't mind that. (And if they were going to admit something selfish, they took a strange sense of pride of being the only part steambot and part Vectron being they knew of that wasn't some kind of monster that didn't have a bullet lodged into its head.) 

When being able to tell their own voice, or hearing Voltbot's voice, or even perhaps Vectron itself, that person, place, and maybe event, it was difficult. It was a slight extra for their ongoing crisis. The difference came in when Fen realized that they had not one voice, but two, overlayed and speaking in their own tones in complicated ones and zeros, and whether that was true or not was something that didn't (it did) need to be discussed (it really should be). But besides that, there was no difference, only that at one point Fen had decided they like to express emotions when speaking.

And that wasn't to say Vectron didn't experience emotion, it was all to obvious. It was boiling and tipping over the edge, dripping into clogged drains and eventually causing a flood so bad it exploded. And something like that was begging to be controlled, but never would.

Even when they had woken up, their last vision being someone who was blue (and not the descrated blue of sprites who had died long ago, but still moved because those without compassion said they should) and the world crumbling, they had noticed the difference in the Captain's voice, then in every voice. 

Piper's voice was one of the most metallic they thought they would ever hear. Each word that came out was strict, but she was able to remove the metallicness of it all when she wanted to, even if it was clearly unintentional that she did so. And, still unintentional, she added the metallicness when angry enough. (And a voice that metallic having the ability to become moreso should be thought impossible.)

Seabrass' always sounded like salt was grinding inside of him, and for some reason, they didn't doubt that being literal. Just like when Beatrix would say that Seabrass sounded like he invented the sounds of anger while gently pushing an elbow into Fen. (And Fen never had a response, because Seabrass already disliked them somewhat and she wasn't wrong.)

Beatrix sounded as though with every end of a word, a hammer hit a slab of metal, and Invanski's hammer was simply louder. Dora sounded like how copper looked, while Valentine sounded like how freshly dug up copper felt. Sally sounded like a pocket knife opening while Wonky sounded like one being closed slow enough to pop it back out again in a hurry. And Billy... well, Billy sounded like water, but everyone thought Billy sounded like water, including Billy. (And when they asked them, the responses were always different, so they were pretty sure they had no idea).

And Fen noticing these things didn't apply to only companions. 

Scrappers sounded like they were rusting from the inside, slowly realizing that their only purpose was in the end, truly and honestly, to die. (And that had been their own purpose too, at one point.) And so, to cover that knowledge of death, they simply acted immortal as anyone who's a coward does, simply because cowards have always existed and only survived for so long. 

Royalists sounded like liquid being frozen and broken, their voices constantly alarmed and never calmed, even when they had believed it. Before they had exhausted that luxury, anyway. (And the Queen had sounded both forgien and familiar, until that moment the final shot landed, in which later that day they had wondered for the first time if they would make any noise upon dying.) 

But even despite these, they each had their own differences that were even smaller, and it bothered Fen more than it should. That despite being able to put something in one category, it would always find a way to not fit. 

(And that was why they existed at all.)


End file.
